Episode 0: The Story So Far
Episode 0: The Story So Far Brief Synopsis Luke, later joined by Ashley and Mike, introduces the players characters and sums up most of the early world building and as much of the contents of the missing play sessions before the game was first broadcast, to catch new listeners up to speed on some things they'll need to know before jumping into the game. Not-so-brief Synopsis Luke opens the stream and greets the listeners, then rambles just a bit while waiting for the stream to populate before he begins. He attempts to set the streamed game and is thwarted by the Twitch UI, which he tells to “eat a dick”. Luke contemplates putting on some music and laments his lack of forethought. At 7:45 Luke introduces himself as the GM and begins explaining the game. He explains the events that led to them deciding to broadcast their games. In reaction to the group discussing the game outside of it, curious Audio Entropy fans would eventually ask “When the podcast for it is coming out”, and despite the group’s excitement and enjoyment for the game, they definitely did not wish to produce an actual play podcast, due to how much work they take to edit. So much work. Fans still desired a way to listen to it, so a compromise was decided, and the sessions would be streamed from then on, with no editing, no music queues, and no dice rolls or rule breaks cut out. We learn there have been 5 sessions prior to the start of broadcasting. Luke explains his plan to recap the story so far to avoid new listeners being lost or confused, and is momentarily overcome with anxiety, before jumping on in. Luke reveals the origin of the name of the game, Pizza Party, which is due to the “party” of adventurers working for a pizza delivery service, as part of a restaurant called “Zazzyzzyr’s Pizza”, owned and operated by a very crotchety old time wizard named Zazzyzzyr. Next, Luke introduces the main setting of Pizza Party for the time being, the City of Nethria, a massive city built into a mountain. In between, he praises the unnamed artist for providing the artwork of Nethria after hearing of it on another Audio Entropy podcast, Inside the Master’s Studio, on which Luke guested, rambles about cross branding and brand recognition, and reminds the viewer that is what they tuned in for. Returning to the topic, Luke explains the greater world. Luke describes the world as a dangerous, high fantasy world, full of “monsters and dragons and whatntsic”. Because of the dangerous nature of the world, settlements can only grow so big, with Nethria serving as the one major exception to this rule. Referencing the image, Luke explains the pink flower bud topping the mountain serves as the palace to the “Fairy Queen, Ianoiaguess”, a character that would ultimately come up almost never again. Flowing from the palace and running across the entire mountain are many continuous streams of magic water, that take on the different colors of the rainbow as it spreads down to each tier of the city, starting violet at the top and culminating in red at the bottom. The water’s magical property is its ability to repel evil creatures, which is what protects the mountain and general area around it from monsters and allows it to flourish. Luke explains the different levels of the mountain serving as tiers of the city, with an accompanying class stratification. Starting from the bottom, Luke explains the tiers. The Red Tier is the area around the base of the mountain and is made up of farmland. The Orange Tier is the actual base of the mountain, and serves as the low-class, blue collar area, with The Yellow Tier as upper-lower-class. The Green Tier is home to merchants, artisans, and the middle-class. The Blue Tier houses bankers, and the wealthy in general. The Purple Indigo Tier is for the ultra rich, luxurious mansions and parks, ect. Lastly, the Violet Tier acts as the government district, home to the Fairy Queen’s Palace, and the Council Building that administrates/administers((?) fuck it, who cares)) the city. Returning to the player party, we learn Zazzyzzyr’s Pizza is located in the yellow tier and that they have “goofy ass” adventures as a result of their job, which Luke attempts to put a whimsical spin on describing and immediately regrets, causing him to question what he is doing and loudly hope for the arrival of some of the players soon, a prayer that would go unanswered for another 12 minutes. Luke checks the time and realizes he began the stream an hour early, and makes no guarantees to talk for an entire two hours while also falling further into comical despair. Getting back on track, Luke begins to introduce the five members of the party and their characters. Luke introduces Molly (TMR, Totally Reprise) and her character Edith Blane, who has worked for the pizza parlor the longest. Originally having her own aspirations of opening her own restaurant that fell by the wayside as time went on, and she settled in as the cook for Zazzyzzyr’s Pizza. To vent her incredible frustrations at her failings in life, she fights in the city’s underground fighting league on the side, and sat as the reigning champion. Due to her tendency to win fights in single knockout punches, she is considered a “heel” champion. Luke moves on to introduce Ashley (Also TMR and Totally Reprise) and her character, Jett Joans, a hyena-girl. Jett is the second longest employed at Zazzyzzyr’s, and started working there right out of high school briefly explains their eventual decision that they just have “high school ass high school” in this world. Originally intending for the job to be temporary while Jett got her music career off the ground, and after 5 years passing the realization is dawning on Jett that she can simply make a life out of working for Zazzyzzyr, and is struggling at the time to decide if that’s “enough” for her. Luke introduces Dustin (Bakacast) and his character Ianthia, a dryad girl, as well as her hometown, Willow Wake. Willow Wake is a nearby settlement to Nethria that borders up against a large forest, and is home to numerous magical creatures, and centaurs, that sort of thing. Ianthia is currently attending college in Nethria as an exchange student, is working at Zazzyzzyr’s Pizza to put herself through college, and lacks the same kind of “horrible emotional problems” as the rest of the party. She’s doin’ okay. Luke introduces Julie (TMR, The Digital Moncast, LMTYAH) and her character Brook Webster, a water elemental. Brook, in defiance of the career path laid out for her to become a powerful mage, went to school for journalism and creative writing instead, and recently graduated college with these degrees. momentarily despairs again at the dwindling viewer count. Brook is working at Zazzyzzyr’s ostensibly to gather material for a human interest, slice of life type of story that will help land her a newspaper job. This is her “excuse”, of course, to cover the fact that she is unable to get a job anywhere but food service, because she is “kind of a horrible person, and not very pleasant”. Lastly, but never leastly, Luke introduces Mike (Teenagers With Attitude, Going Pear Shaped) and his character Timmy name: Sicknasty Kickflips, the greatest and best character. Timmy is a young teenage bugbear who just recently graduated from the same highschool as Jett, a few years behind her. Luke explains that Timmy’s grandfather or possibly great grandfather invented the art of skateboarding in this world, and he hails from an entire clan of extreme sports bugbears. Unfortunately, Timmy is “a gentle soul who can’t do the 720s on the halfpipes the same way his family can”, and he has decided to find his own way through life, of which working at Zazzyzzyr’s is just the first step. This segues Luke nicely into explaining that Timmy’s first day on the job also served as their first campaign.